We were actually in school everyday this week (except Monday…but, that was ALWAYS going to be a day off, so it doesn’t count)! There was no snow, no ice…just sunshine (well, it did rain a couple of days, but we can handle that!)

Here’s what we did this week:

5th grade continued their Harlem Renaissance lessons with a focus on the ART of the Harlem Renaissance. My Technology Integration Specialist found some art from the time period and helped me put together a PowerPoint presentation showing some of the most famous pieces. I showed the presentation to my classes and we all talked about what we saw (the art told stories, most often about people, used bright colors, etc.) After looking at the art and discussing it, it was their turn to create something. I turned up my Harlem Renaissance playlist on Spotify and they got to work. We called them up in small groups to paint. The rest of the students either continued working on their poetry from last week, read books about people from the Harlem Renaissance, or explored the Drop Me Off in Harlem website. We rolled out butcher paper on a table and set up some bright paint for students to use. Some of the images they created are AMAZING! To help them come up with ideas, we suggested they paint words that come to mind or music notes…many of them started with that, but then were inspired to do other things…each class created a beautiful mural. I think this was my favorite of all of the lessons for this project so far. LOVE!

The Book Award Blitz book of the week was Chopsticks by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This is an excellent friendship story. So, when I read it to kindergarten, that is what we talked about when we were through. They also checked out library books and went to these centers:

1. Use chopsticks to pick up foam beads. It is really hard to explain to someone how to use chopsticks…especially a 5 year old! They picked it up quickly though 🙂

2. Find the Perfect Match. I printed out two sets from this teacher’s guide (page 4) and cut/laminated them. They first found the “perfect match” (like, peanut butter and jelly; bacon and eggs) and then found the “match” (kind of like Memory)

3. Play Pick Up Sticks. There were only a few kids who knew how to play this game. That’s kind of sad! Hopefully, they know now and will ask their folks for a set.

Wednesday was a PAWS to Read at PETS, Inc. Day. We meet once a month at a local pet shelter after school. I bring books and kiddos come in and read with the cats and dogs. SO CUTE!

My USC students met at Thomas Cooper Library on Wednesday. They learned about resources available to them through TC. We focused on Easy Readers and Transitional Books, as well as practiced reading aloud.

5th grade Media Technology students created Avatars using a few different websites. We used DoppleMe and Mini-mizer. There are lots of different ones out there though.

It was also STORY TIME week! This month’s theme was TEETH. I had planned to give everyone a tooth brush and tooth paste from a local dentist who was going to come speak to our 1st graders, however, he was postponed because of the snow and ice last week. I think story time was still a success.